Mandy and Jace

Being the good Texas girl I am, I am very picky about my salsa. My favorite is the kind you get at the little hole in the wall restaurants here in west Texas. We have a great restaurant next door to where I work and I’m usually in there once a week begging for chips and salsa. I will eat some of the salsas you can get at the grocery store, but I can’t do picante sauce. I don’t care if it’s not from New York City!

This is more of a suggestion than a recipe. I start with this and then adjust to my taste. I use the jalapeño to adjust the heat. So start with half, taste and then throw more in after if you want it hotter. I normally leave all the seeds in the peppers because it’s easier to adjust the heat that way. Also, I almost always have to add more salt but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Salsa
4 tomatoes
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 jalapeno (more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
2 lemons
2 limes
approximately 1 tbs salt
handfull of cilantro

Roughly chop the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and jalapeno (don’t worry too much about the chop it’s all going to be blended anyway) and throw them in a food processor or blender. Squeeze in the juice of the lemons and limes, add the salt and cilatro and blend until everything is blended together to your liking. Taste and adjust as needed.

Tonight: delicious pan-roasted chicken thighs with roasted potatoes
Tuesday: spaghetti Bolognese (spaghetti in a meat sauce)
Wednesday: beef quesadillas with tex-mex rice
Thursday: take out after praise and worship practice
Friday: Jace’s birthday date night. His birthday is actually next Tuesday but I’m celebrating early.

Happy eating!

So it turned out Brownies+Butterfingers=AWESOME. You must make these ASAP!

Butterfinger Brownies
adapted from Becky Bakes

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter cut into cubes
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour (I actually missed this ingredient and they came out very fudgy which I like better add this for cakey brownies)
4 regular sized Butterfinger candy bars roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a double boiler or in the microwave melt the chocolate chips and butter together. Set aside.

In a bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, peanut butter and salt. Whisk in the chocolate mixture and then fold in the Butterfinger pieces.

Pour the batter into a greased 8” square pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Cool, cut and eat!

Quick tip:
Line your baking dish with foil and grease the foil before you pour in the batter. When the brownies are ready and cool, pull the foil with the brownies out of the pan and set on counter. Flatten the foil out and use a pizza cutter to cut the brownies.

Saturday evening’s steaks that Jace cooked. They were awesome!

Tonight: beef fajitas topped with cilantro and hopefully homemade salsa if I can find time to run through Albertsons on my way home from work. Also, refried beans on the side.
Tuesday: pork chops and lemon thyme rice.
Wednesday: not sure yet. Something quick and easy. Maybe chicken spaghetti and salad?
Thursday: take out after praise and worship practice.
Friday: date night.

Happy eating!